Comic Writer Grant Morrison talks Ligotti and CATHR

[Frater_Tsalal]

Financially, I think he's well off. Hell, the guy does have multiple houses!

I really wish that Bible John would be released in graphic novel format. Granted, I've read it online, but it would be a nice thing to have for the bookshelf.

Just in case people get the impression that I think Morrison can do no wrong, I should say he's had a few missteps in his career, namely Happy! and Vimanarama.

[Corman]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

Supergods was also controversial for what he said about comic creators like Siegel and Shuster. Matt Seneca made some sort of protest by eating the book. I wonder if it's awkward for artists who collaborate with Morrison who also work for Moore and Mark Millar?

Frank Quitely seems to have no problem doing stuff for both.

I used to be Morrison superfan but he lost a lot of luster for me when Supergods claimed superheroes are purely a expression of the creative unconscious and aren't "owned" by anybody, and thus comic publishers don't have to pay artist and writers fair wages or even credit them for the ideas they've brought to the table. What was hilarious was that shortly afterward Morrison wanted to use Flex Mentallo, the superhero he'd created for Doom Patrol, in a creator-owned comic and discovered the terms of his contract meant that DC was the sole owner of the character.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I heard that John Coulthart was working with Morrison on a Lovecraftian novel and is friends with him. Coulthart is friends with Moore and Moorcock, both who hate Morrison. Just surprised me a bit. No judgments from me.

[symbolique]

nil

[ramonoski]

Quote Originally Posted by symbolique

And it's not like DC has a record of doing this for decades to artists. DC and Marvel, the Koch brothers of the comic world.

Well, yes.

It's worth noting that Supergods and similar statements from Morrison in interviews came out around the height of the latest legal battle between DC and the heirs of Superman's creators, so it seemed that he was not only downplaying the issue but dismissing it altogether. Not cool, Grant.

[Stu]

This thread sums up a lot of my feelings about Morrison: yes, he can write brilliant stories but he can also write some pretentious rubbish and act like a hypocritical poseur.

That said, the other TLO thread about his Annihilator interview has got me rereading his work and I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm focusing on his more optimistic stuff at the moment -- All-Star Superman, Animal Man, New X-Men, Doom Patrol* -- and it's helping to lift me out of a bad mood that I've been stuck in for the last few months. When I'm feeling sufficiently cheerful to handle it I'll go back and reread The Filth.

*I don't actually own the entire Doom Patrol series so I can't quite remember how the overall series turned out but the issues I do own are pretty optimistic. Offhand, JLA is probably his most optimistic comic as you don't even have to wade through any bleak, despairing stuff to get to the happy ending but I've already read those comics about a million times so I decided to focus on some of his other stuff for the moment. (Although I did reread JLA: Earth 2 which does contain a certain amount of bleak despair and arguably has quite a downbeat ending.)

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[Justin Isis]

I'm going through Animal Man again at the moment and am planning to reread Doom Patrol after I finish.

Animal Man is...good, but a bit heavy-handed. I'm sure the author insertion thing seemed mindblowing at the time but it hasn't aged well, and Morrison would do a much better and more nuanced take on it in The Invisibles. Animal Man is also pretty heavily tied into DC continuity - I don't really care what the Justice League was up to in 1988, but large parts of the run depend on it, and there are a lot (too many) of walk-on roles and cameo of the week issues. And also things like story lines getting started and then finished in some other comic I don't have, leading to a disjunctive reading experience even though you're reading straight through from #14 to #15 or whatever. I'm thinking of the issue where Hawkman pulls a deus ex machina on the last page and then there's no explanation in the following issue. (This kind of thing is what made me give up on on mainstream comics as a teenager, for reasons of budget - especially when Marvel, which at the time had something like six separate Spiderman comics, would start storylines in one of them and continue them in the others, forcing you to buy all of them to get a complete story...and this was eventually extended into essentially company-wide crossovers where you needed to buy something like 40 comics a month to have any idea of what was happening).

It's still good, though.

[Stu]

I was heavily into the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League at the time so the crossover element doesn't bother me too much. I think it actually works better than in say Final Crisis where Morrison was doing it deliberately rather than having it forced upon him by DC. That said, the bit where Hawkman turns up in AM for just one panel without any real explanation probably confuses a lot of non-superhero readers.

Animal Man was the first time I had seen the author insertion thing played for dramatic effect rather than for laughs so it still has a certain resonance for me even though I now know it was kind of old hat (even in superhero comics)* when Morrison did it.

*Captain America's alter ego Steve Rogers actually drew the Marvel Universe's version of the Captain America comic and was shown meeting with the real life editors within the pages of the actual comic. He discussed how he felt Cap should be portrayed in the stories, steering the writers towards a more considered heroism rather than gung-ho fisticuffs. Not sure if Morrison read that issue.

[miguel1984]

Man, Supergods sucks. I mean, really sucks. I mean, really really sucks.

[Stu]

For some reason I can never bring myself to read my copy of Supergods. I dip into it from time to time but I never sit down and read the thing all the way through.